


none of you

by theredhoodie



Category: The Gifted (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, rewrite of 1x10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 14:10:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13009503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theredhoodie/pseuds/theredhoodie
Summary: What if John and Clarice went to the power station and were the ones to be caught by Trask? (1x10 rewrite, sort of.)





	none of you

**Author's Note:**

> Uh....yeah. I didn't necessary go into this thinking I would rewrite part of episode 10, but it just kind of happened. I hope it makes sense. I had fun writing it. I tried to keep everyone as in character and canon as possible.
> 
> Briefly edited, sorry for the mistakes.

They were holding them separately, so when Clarice saw John being carted into the room in front of her, her heart lurched. It wasn't as if she didn't know he was here. Back at the power station, she had been caught and collared and heard him fighting against the Sentinels and the soldiers before it got quiet. But she hadn't  _seen_  him.

He was a  _leader_  of the Mutant Underground; they weren't just going to kill him.

She sat alone in her cell for what felt like days but what was only hours. She didn't try to get out of the collar; she knew what would happen. It happened before, back when they arrested her for stealing. It hurt like hell and she wanted to be as alert as possible for whatever was coming her way.

In the lab, John met her eyes briefly as they were man handled to stop behind Dr. Campbell. If only he had gone with the others to infiltrate the main building, they wouldn't have caught him too. If only  _he_  was out there, figuring out a way to get her and Lauren and Andy out of the clutches of this madman.

 _If only_.

There was little comfort that could come just from a look, but it was comforting to see that his strength hadn't been diminished, despite the collar clipped around his throat. He was bigger than all of the guards, and she knew that he could take them down even without his powers, but the collar would stop him before he could take out the guards.

"What are you doing? They're not part of this!" Lauren's voice was small on the screen in front of them.

Clarice looked at them, these  _kids_  and she wished more than anything she could portal them all out of here. This was worse than the mutant detainment center. As much as the Struckers had rattled things up for the mutants of Atlanta, it wasn't entirely their fault.

Young mutants do stupid things without realizing it. Young mutants can't control their powers well. She knew, they  _all_  knew.

They were just kids and God knows what the doctor was going to do to them.

"Don't do anything he says," John told them, voice calm and commanding.

Clarice felt like her skin was crawling just being in proximity to Dr. Campbell, and her time alone in that cell had degraded her emotional stability a little too much for her to bounce back again so quickly. She watched, silent and numb, as the Struckers refused, the doctor insisted, John held fast, and then…

Her eyes widened at the gun, the metallic snap, the barrel pointed directly at her forehead.

John hissed her name.

She had no reassurances for the Struckers.

They hesitated on screen.

"You have five seconds," Dr. Campbell said, adjusting his grip on the gun. "One, two."

"Stop!" Andy yelled, just as John head butted the guard behind him and lurched forward. Campbell swung around and a shot rang out.

Clarice's ears rang. Her eyes settled on John, kneeling on the floor, blood dripping from his left shoulder.

It was so alien to see John bleed that it riled up terror in the pit of her stomach. "John," she whispered, the guards clasping her arms tightly to keep her still. He looked at her and shook his head sharply, forcing her to step back.

"All right children," the doctor said, returning to Clarice, this time closer. She could feel the warmth coming off of the end of the barrel. "You have one last chance to end this bloodshed."

"Don't!" John commanded them.

Clarice whimpered as the gun pressed against her skin.

"Don't," Clarice echoed, though her voice had little of the conviction and power that John's had.

They did anyway. They held hands on screen and Campbell dropped the gun from Clarice's head. She sagged a little but the guards kept her upright. The Struckers held hands and  _glowed_  and the room shook and broke. Campbell watched in morbid awe. Blood continued to pour from the open wound at John's shoulder, drenching his shirt, his pants, leaving droplets on the floor.

"Sir," another guard came in just as the room finally stopped shaking. "Sentinel Services is here."

Campbell stared around the broken room in fascination. "Take them back to their cells," he said, waving a hand.

John was pulled to his feet and shoved out of the room in front of Clarice.

"Are you okay?" she asked, not caring if the guards heard or if they decided to shock her for speaking.

John grimaced, but she couldn't see. "I forgot what this feels like," is all he said before they were taken down two diverging hallways.

Clarice watched him over her shoulder as long as she could as he left a trail of blood droplets dripping off his fingertips.

She felt more like a caged cat now than she had before. John was important, she knew that, they wouldn't want to kill him so swiftly, not with the knowledge he held. But they could hurt him; badly. Clarice had a feeling that the people working for Campbell were good at keeping people barely alive.

Alone, she sunk to the floor and rubbed her face, trying to rid herself of the feeling of the gun against her flesh. Time seemed to go by in a snap before her cell was opened again but she was greeted not with the Trask guards, but SS agents. She wasn't sure which was worse.

"Come on," the man said, as she stood in a corner, unmoving. She watched him with her bright green eyes. With her collar on, they didn't need to cuff her. He grabbed her upper arm and moved her through the building.

She saw others dressed in blue. She spotted Andy and Lauren among them as they were transported outside, from one hellhole to another. They were shoved onto a bus, just like the one they'd rescued Lorna and Reed from a few weeks ago. She sat in the back and watched as John was the last to board. His wound hadn't even been  _touched_ , and his outfit was drenched in blood. Without thinking, Clarice got up from her seat and pulled him toward the back. He fell heavily onto the seat.

She didn't pay attention as the bus started to move.

"Shit," she muttered over and over. She pressed her hands against his shoulder and John groaned.

"Did it go through?" he asked and she helped him sit forward. There was an exit wound, also bleeding.

"Yeah. But we don't have anything to close it with."

He nodded, as if accepting this, and fell back against the seat again. "I really don't miss this."

Clarice pressed her fingers as best she could against his throat, to feel his pulse. It was getting faster, his body working itself up into shock. He was losing way too much blood, way too fast.

Turning to Lauren, Clarice grabbed the girl's wrist with one bloody hand. "Pressure, here," she instructed, putting Lauren's hands where hers were.

There were two guards on the bus plus the driver. The bus slowed to a halt as Clarice stepped up to the front. She stopped a few feet back.

"Hey! There's someone bleeding out back here," she said. The guards didn't even blink. "Did you hear me? Someone's been shot and—" The collar clicked off and she felt a surge of power. She backed up just as the driver shot the two guards, splashing her with blood. Screams echoed through the bus. Some of them might have been hers.

Two blonde girls took charge, finding the key to the collar and passing it around before stepping off the bus. Clarice ignored hers and ran to the back of the bus.

"Are you okay?" she asked as more gunshots and explosions were heard outside. She pulled Lauren's hand away. He was still bleeding.

"I'm strong, I don't regenerate," John hissed and Clarice's heart sank. Even with the collars off, they were basically helpless. That is, unless she portalled them somewhere. The base was way too far, and she didn't know if she could do multiple portals in a row to get them there before John bled out.

"Okay, well, we probably shouldn't move you but," she shrugged and pulled him to his feet, pressing his hand against his shoulder as if to remind him that it needed to be there. They stumbled off the bus just as Esme and her sisters told them they had to go.

Clarice felt a click and heard a beep as her and John's collars turned on again. John sagged next to her and she grabbed him to stop him from falling. "Great," she muttered.

Then all hell broke lose.

The other mutants arrived, the telepaths took charge, more SS agents arrived as backup. John and Clarice ran. Clarice couldn't have told anyone if the idea had been planted in their minds or if they decided on their own, but they went to the forest and ran, supposedly back to the SUVs from the station.

"We should have grabbed the stupid key," Clarice hissed as they stumbled through the forest, dark and blind. She clawed at her neck, hoping that someone at the station could get the collars off. If they even made it that far.

"Yeah, probably," John huffed next to her. He was going from one tree to the next like they were canes, leaning against them and pushing himself off to the next.

"We really need to find a healer to keep at base," she also said, watching him as best as she could. They couldn't be too far from the road, but she had no idea what direction they were headed in. John was powerless again so he couldn't track even if he wanted to.

John let out a pained laugh. "I've been saying that for years."

She noticed the pain in his voice and made her way to him. "We should stop."

"No. I'm fine."

She gripped his arm. Cold, sweaty. If it was bright enough, she would have seen how pale his skin was. "No you're not. Someone will find us."

"And if it's Trask? Sentinels?"

Clarice shook her head. "Okay." She stayed close, and they walked only a few more paces before John collapsed, pressing his back to a tree trunk to keep himself upright. His left arm hung loose and useless at his side.

"Hey," Clarice crouched down. She pressed her fingers against his neck again. Not so good. "Hey,  _John_."

His eyes fluttered open. "Yeah?"

"You're going to die here," she said softly. "If you keep being stupid."

"Stupid has nothing to do with it."

He was right. He could have been fine if Trask had sewn up the wounds. At least he wouldn't have bled out a pint of his blood already.

Clarice hissed out another curse and pulled off her shirt, a shiver making goosebumps scatter across her bare arms and back. "Here," she bunched up the shirt and pressed John's hand to it. And then she slapped the side of his face lightly to wake him up. " _Hey_."

The collars clicked off again.

She wasn't going to let this chance slip through her fingers again. She jumped to her feet. "Where are the cars?" she asked. "John! Where are the cars?"

He blinked wearily around. "Close to the power plant."

She'd been there before. Good. Sucking in a breath, she created a portal, somehow landing close enough to the SUVs for the remaining people there—Dreamer and Shatter—to see the flickering purple.

"Clarice!" Sonya yelled, jogging over.

Clarice gritted her teeth and opened the portal a little wider. "John's been shot," she said. "I'll explain later. Just get him!"

Shatter and Sonya both skirted through the portal and dragged John back to the other side. Clarice let out a gasp and fell forward through the portal before it closed.

"Where are the others?" Shatter asked. The Trask grounds were large, and luckily the mutants—Esme—had struck close to the outer gate, closer to the power plant. There was no way to miss the gunshots and the light from the explosions.

Clarice shook her head and Shatter grabbed a sweatshirt from inside one of the trucks to give to her. She yanked it on as another car came screeching up next to them. Henry, Caitlin and Reed were inside.

Clarice had never been so happy to see Caitlin. "Thank god," she said, meeting Caitlin halfway.

"What's going on? Esme!"

"We know," Clarice said, gripping the older woman's arms.

"Lauren and Andy?" Fear laced across Caitlin's face.

"They're fine," Clarice assured her. At least, they had been the last time they were together. Esme didn't seem interested in hurting mutants. "But John…he's been shot."

Caitlin frowned. "What?"

"It happened when he had the power dampening collar on. He's lost so much blood."

She slipped right into nurse mode. "Can we take this truck?" John was already in the back and Sonya was doing her best to staunch the blood, which was coming but as a trickle as John flittered in and out of consciousness, his heartbeat waning. He'd go into cardiac arrest soon if they didn't hurry.

"Yeah," Shatter said as Henry hopping out of the other truck. "They keys are in the ignition."

Just then, Marcos, Lorna, Andy and Lauren appeared in the small clearing.

"Mom!" The kids yelled and hugged her quickly before moving on to Reed.

"We have to get going  _now_ ," Cait said, already moving into the back with Sonya and John. "Marcos. Can you cauterize his wounds? The only thing we can do now is hope we can get him enough blood before…"

With a wave of her hand, Lorna popped the collars on Clarice and John, which were hastily removed and tossed on the ground. "I'm coming with you," Lorna said, jumping into the truck.

Marcos moved quickly to behind the wheel. "Watch out for Esme," he told all of them.

They sped off and then the others from the van came stumbling out of the forest, the three sisters with them.

"I swear to god, if you mess with my mind I will end you," Clarice growled, though she had very little way of ending anyone. She wasn't a fighter; not like that.

Esme held up her hands. "We only wanted to get all of you free. We protect mutant lives, not human ones." Her eyes flickered to Reed, as did the other two. It was eerie.

"So you'll let us go," Henry said. He already had an idea of how sneaky and manipulative the blonde telepath had been, and with John out of commission and Marcos, Lorna and Sonya not here, he took control of the situation. Shatter was gathering the other mutants and herding them into one of the SUVs. It filled to the brim with them all, but it was better than the cells, the collars.

The three sisters smiled. "Of course. But we'll be seeing you again soon." They took one of the trucks with little more than a mental push, leaving the rest of them with just one vehicle.

"We need to go,  _now_ ," Reed said.

"Reinforcements will be here soon," Shatter agreed.

Clarice got into the second seat with five other people, squished but free. For now. She could only hope that Caitlin was able to help John. After tonight, the last thing that the station needed was to lose a leader. And Clarice wasn't sure if she could handle losing someone else either.


End file.
